Domain%20specific%20languages%20for%20Business%20Process%20Management:%20a%20Case%20Study

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Domain specific languages for Business Process
Management a Case Study

• Janis Barzdins, Karlis Cerans, Mikus Grasmanis,
  Audris Kalnins, Sergejs Kozlovics, Lelde Lace,
  Renars Liepins, Edgars Rencis, Arturs Sprogis,
  Andris Zarins

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_____________ DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando,
Florida, USA, 25th October, 2009
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Outline

• BPM what is it?
• The environment for building tools
• TDA the Transformation-Driven Architecture
• TDA framework
• GrTP Graphical Tool Building Platform
• Case study two BPM languages
• requirements they had
• place in the architecture
• aspects of implementation
• impact on the platform
• Summary
• things done
• future work

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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The world of business processes

• Meanings of the BPM
• Business Process Modeling
• paints the overall view over processes
• helps to understand processes deeper
• allows simulation
• Business Process Management
• performs execution of processes
• allows process monitoring
• ...
• In either case...
• ... we need a language for modeling processes
• ... we need a tool for supporting the language

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Currently in the market...

• There exist several business process modeling
  languages
• languages are universal
• so they must fit our needs regardless of the case
• languages can be extendable a bit
• we can add our specific attributes
• one of the most notable representatives the
  BPMN language
• There exist tools supporting the languages
• BPMN tools allow to compile a BMPN to a BPEL code
• BPEL code can then be executed by a BPEL engine

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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However...

• Languages tend to be too universal
• only a small subset is needed in many cases
• only some minor changes can be done
• addition of attributes
• quite difficult to learn for a non-programmer
• Tools tend to be too enormous
• very complicated
• very hard to adapt for specific needs
• usually very expensive
• some exceptions exist here BizAgi, Intalio, ...
• however, they are based on the same complicated
  languages

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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What to do?

• We need a Domain Specific Language for the given
  business domain
• easy to learn by domain experts known concepts
• the language can be made fitting our needs
  completely
• We need a tool implementing the language
• the tool can be made in our tool building
  platform
• thus it overcomes the problems mentioned
  previously

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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The Transformation-Driven Architecture
J. Barzdins, S. Kozlovics, E. Rencis. The
Transformation-Driven Architecture. Proceedings
of DSM08 Workshop of OOPSLA 2008, Nashville,
USA, pp. 6063, 2008.
DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Graphical Tool Building Platform GrTP

• Implements principles of the TDA
• Contains five engines (others can be plugged in
  when needed)
• graph diagram engine
• dialog engine
• database engine
• word engine
• multi-user engine
• Provides model transformations for user-created
  events
• Introduces the Tool Definition Metamodel (TDMM)
  allowing to build tools more easily

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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The Tool Definition Metamodel

• TDMM provides a way of storing the definition of
  tools (graphical editors)
• each tool is described as an instance of TDMM
• instances can be generated using a graphical
  configurator
• universal transformation interprets TDMM together
  with its instances at runtime
• TDMM contains, so called, Extension Mechanism
• the set of precisely defined extension points
• a transformation assigned to each point
• universal transformation calls the assigned
  transformation at specific time (defined by the
  point)
• possibility to alter the behavior of tools

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Fragment of TDMM
DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Case study two BPM languages

• Project Assessment Diagrams (PAD)
• editor for defining and vizualizing business
  processes regarding review and assessment of
  projects
• language similar to UML activity diagrams
• some new elements
• lots of new attributes
• requirements for tool
• possibility to send data to some outer database
• simple business process monitoring
• State Social Insurance Agency (SSIA)
• manager of various social insurance processes
• language more similar to BPMN
• requirements for tool
• online collaboration with a relational database
  during process development
• generation of reports in a form of Microsoft Word
• checking of various semantic constraints
• simple solution to DSL (and platform) evolution
  problem

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Implementation of PAD and SSIA

• First step development of graphical editors
• generation of TDMM instances using the graphical
  configurator
• addition of some dynamic facilities using the
  Extension Mechanism
• dynamically generating combo box items
• dynamically generating pop-ups
• adding specific toolbar elements
• ...
• Second step extension of the platform
• development of new engines
• database engine
• word engine
• multi-user engine
• evolution of the Tool Definition Metamodel

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Summary

• Results
• Two DSLs for BPM have been developed
• The Transformation-Driven Architecture has been
  tested
• test passed
• The tool building platform GrTP has been examined
• three new engines have been created
• the tool definition metamodel has been improved
• Future work
• to develop a platform for building domain
  specific BPM suites
• several facilities (process editor, process
  engine, simulator, etc.) included in one suite

DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009
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Questions?
DSM Workshop, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25th
October, 2009